1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a checkout device in which sales transactions for two customers can be effected in parallel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a large number of large-scale stores such as supermarkets introduced various types of checkout devices for speeding up the checkout.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional checkout device. The checkout device has two scanning lanes L1 and L2 which are symmetrically disposed with respect to the position of a cashier CHR. Each of the scanning lanes L1 and L2 has two tables TB1 and TB2 on which a basket BS is placed, and a stationary scanner SC disposed between the tables TB1 and TB2. Further, the checkout device has two electronic cash registers CR assigned to and installed between the scanning lanes L1 and L2. The scanner SC optically scans and reads an article code affixed to an article in the form of a bar code, and has a switching section SW for instructing start and end of scanning. The cash register CR performs a settlement process based on article codes read by the scanner SC.
A customer CST selects one of the scanning lanes L1 and L2, for example, the scanning lane L1, places the basket BS containing articles to be purchased on the table TB1 on the scanning lane L1 side, and operates the switching section SW to instruct the scanner SC to start scanning. After this, the customer CST takes out the articles one by one from the basket BS, causes the scanner SC to read the article code of the article, and puts the article into another basket BS which is previously placed on the table TB2 and is first empty. After the article codes of all of the articles are input by use of the scanner SC, the customer CST operates the switching section SW to instruct the scanner SC to end the scanning. The cash register CR on the scanning lane L1 side registers article data (an article name, a unit price, and the like) corresponding to each of the article codes sequentially supplied from the scanner SC as sales data, causes the sales data to be displayed on the cashier display unit DP1 and customer display unit DP2, totalizes all of the sales data items according to the operation of the keyboard KB, and issues a receipt on which the result of totalization containing article names, unit prices, the number of articles, and the total amount is printed by the printer PR. As regards the foregoing articles whose article codes are difficult to be input by use of the scanner SC, the cashier CHR receives these articles from the customer CST and enters their article codes by using the keyboard KB, for example.
In the checkout device, the customer inputs the article codes instead of the cashier. Though the cashier has to monitor the customers who input the article codes on the scanning lanes L1 and L2 and carry out an operation of the cash register CR necessary for receiving cash from or giving cash to the customer, it is hardly a burden to the cashier. Further, time for the customer to look on the operation of the cashier without doing anything can be shortened by time corresponding to the input operation carried out by the customer. Therefore, a good impression can be given to the customer. In addition, since one cashier is in charge of two scanning lanes L1 and L2, the labor cost can be reduced.
Nevertheless, the above checkout device is not widespread due to the following drawback. That is, in supermarkets, the time band of congestion periodically changes depending on the month, week, and day, for example. If article codes are input by a customer who is not familiar with the checkout device, a delay will easily occur in the input operation. This makes the time for waiting customers' turn for the checkout to be lengthened at the time of congestion. Further, both the scanning lanes L1 and L2 will be occupied to input article codes at the time of congestion. If the cashier is dealing with a customer who has finished scanning article codes of articles on one scanning lane, then he or she cannot monitor another customer who inputs article codes of articles on the other scanning lane. It is therefore impossible to prevent dishonesty in which some articles are put in the basket BS on the table TB2 without reading their code.